Farmers' Nat. Bank v. Renfro

184 P. 564, 94 Or. 260, 1919 Ore. LEXIS 221
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 21, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 184 P. 564 (Farmers' Nat. Bank v. Renfro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farmers' Nat. Bank v. Renfro, 184 P. 564, 94 Or. 260, 1919 Ore. LEXIS 221 (Or. 1919).

Opinion

BURNETT, J.

The chronology of the events involved in this litigation is substantially this: The plaintiff claims that it bought certain alleged state warrants which afterwards proved to be forgeries; that the defendant husband acted as an intermediary [263]*263between the officer of the state who uttered the forged paper, and the Guthrie National Bank, passing the invalid warrants from the officer to the bank for the account of the plaintiff. This transaction took place in the latter part of January, 1911. The husband suffered a stroke of paralysis on May 7, 1911, and became unable to attend to his business. The Oklahoma land in question did not constitute the whole of his possessions. He had other realty at the time and was engaged in a prosperous drug business at Guthrie, Oklahoma. It is claimed on the part of the defendants that the husband was greatly worried about the six thousand dollar mortgage on the land, and to relieve him the wife paid him out of her own funds about $5,000, and took title from him by deed of February 19, 1912. There is evidence to the effect that a previous deed had been made in December before but was informal in some particulars, requiring the instrument already mentioned as a means of correction. The next event was the departure of the husband and wife to take up their residence in Oregon, in the latter part of February, 1912. Succeeding this, on March 8, 1912, the plaintiff began the action against the husband, the Guthrie National Bank and its cashier, to recover as for money had and received to the use of the plaintiff. Judgment was not rendered in that action until April 27, 1915, more than three years after its commencement. Action upon the Oklahoma judgment was begun in Lane County, Oregon, on November 13, 1915, resulting in a judgment against the husband on March 3, 1916, as already stated. Afterwards came the instant suit.

There is a dispute in the testimony between the husband and the cashier of the Guthrie bank, Sohlburg by.name, about who took the initiative in bringing [264]*264about tbe transaction concerning tbe warrants. Renfro testifies in substance that he was approached by Sohlburg, inquiring for warrants, while the latter contends that Renfro took up the subject with him. This is not necessarily material in the inquiry. It seems from the testimony that banks in Oklahoma were anxious to buy state warrants as an investment because they were not taxable. There is no testimony whatever tending to show that Renfro knew that the warrants in question were forged, and he is uncontradicted in his statement that the first he knew of any claim against him on account of his connection with the transaction was when Sohlburg sent him a copy of the papers served in the Oklahoma action.

As to the origin of the funds which the wife claims to Have paid to her husband for his interest in the Oklahoma lands, we have only the testimony of the husband and wife. She states that she married her husband in 1891 and that he was then a prosperous druggist at Guthrie and had plenty of money. They both agree that at the beginning of their married life he gave her regularly $10 every month for her own ase, independent of the expenses of the household. Soon afterwards he increased this to $50 per month. They also say that she invested her money and reinvested it and was frugal in her habits, so that at the time of the conveyance she had accumulated in the neighborhood of $5,000. ' He tells of giving her money at different times, among others, $300, being half of a $600 bet he won on an election. She narrates her purchase for $450 of some lots she afterwards sold for $2,100. They do not produce any books of account showing all these transactions, but there is nothing to contradict them in their positive statement.

[265]*2651-4. The deposition of Sohlburg is to the effect that Renfro brought the bonds to the former’s bank and that the check which the agent of the plaintiff gave in payment was carried to Renfro’s account in the Guthrie bank. Renfro testifies substantially that he simply acted as messenger from the state official to the Guthrie National Bank; that in return for the warrants he received a cashier’s check on that bank, whereupon he protested that it should not have been drawn in his name, as he was not selling them, but that Sohlburg put him off with the statement that the books had been made up, as the transaction had occurred after banking hours and that it would not make any difference, whereupon Renfro indorsed the check to the state official. The witnesses account for this being after banking hours by the fact that owing to the train schedule the officer could not arrive at Guthrie until evening.' There is no testimony tending to show that Renfro knew that the warrants were invalid. Neither is there any evidence indicating that his wife knew of any claim of the plaintiff against him prior to the commencement of the action. It will be noted that all of the money which the wife had, in whatever manner she acquired it, was accumulated prior to the transaction concerning the warrants. The conveyance for which she paid was made before the commencement of the action and, so far as the testimony shows, was executed and delivered before the grantor therein had any notice of the plaintiff’s claim against him. That the defendant’s wife has a right to inquire into the origin and circumstances of the plaintiff’s demand against her husband is taught in Barnes v. Spencer, 79 Or. 205 (153 Pac. 47). There, the defendant Spencer had acquired judgment against the husband of Mrs. Barnes in California, had sued [266]*266upon it in Oregon and recovered a domestic judgment here. He was attempting to levy an execution upon property which Mrs. Barnes claimed was purchased with her money by the' husband, who took title in himsélf contrary to her instructions. The court there permitted her to inquire into the origin of the claim of the judgment creditor. This ruling depended upon the principle that she was not bound by any judgment to which she was not a party. So here, Mrs. Renfro is not concluded in this suit by the mere rendition of a judgment in any court unless she was a party to it. She is entitled to put in evidence all the circumstances attendant upon the origin of the claim, not only to show that her husband had no intent to defraud his creditors, having no knowledge of any such claim, but also that even if there were such a fraudulent design on his part she knew nothing of it and did not participate in the deceit. There is nothing against the claim of the husband and wife that she paid him a valuable consideration for the property in Oklahoma. To a financially interested critic there might be suspicion that she could not .acquire $5,000 during the twenty years of her married life. Mere suspicion, however, is not enough to overthrow a positive statement which is not unreasonable. It is further suggested that there were no books of account offered, nor any details given about the numerous transactions which would lead to the accumulation of that amount of money. We must remember, however, that it is not improbable that a husband engaged in prosperous business should give his wife money continually and systematically. Neither is it beyond belief that while they prospered, and were harmonious in their domestic life business was not transacted between them with that same punctilious accuracy that [267]*267would characterize dealings between strangers, both of whom were business men.

The legislative department of the government has codified the rules relating to conveyances with intent to defraud creditors.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
184 P. 564, 94 Or. 260, 1919 Ore. LEXIS 221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farmers-nat-bank-v-renfro-or-1919.